Rich
For the second time in a month, Mike has been caught out by opening hours. Too late, you might think? No. Mike is so keen to start drinking that he frequently arranges to arrive at a bar before it is open. In this case we were a mere 4 hours ahead of schedule for our intended stop, so we headed down the road to The Mall. It should in no way be considered a backup plan or second choice, as it was on the agenda anyway – my point is that Mike is terrible at logistics.
The Mall is situated on The Mall, which is an easy one to remember. Although you can also get in via the beer garden entrance on Beaufort Buildings a.k.a the B3129 (fun fact #1). Having wandered through the bar and to the outside space, we found the quickest way to return to order food was to head out and around on the roads, and so was born our arbitrary decision to always move in an anti-clockwise direction when visiting The Mall.
A photo of the B3129. To go towards it in this shot would be (correct) anti-clockwise movement.
A short while later our food arrived, delivered by a waiter taking a very displeasing non-anti-clockwise route over to the table.
Adam and Mike both opted for burgers and fries, whilst I had a large fish and chips, which was nothing special, but pretty filling. The fish was good, but with better batter I’d butter up the bar a bit.
“Three standard pub foods, please!”
So a little about the bar itself now (or maybe I’ll rename this anti-clockwise burger blog). The most important factor is, of course, the drinks, and The Mall has a pretty wide selection on top upstairs. This backfired somewhat as the lady ordering before us wanted a complicated mixed drink and then added a coffee for good measure. Oh, and then some milk, please. Just go away and let me buy a pint! Ugh.
The atmosphere is pretty cosy thanks to lots of little enclaves (both inside and out), which works even when the place is less than half full. It can get pretty packed, Sunday lunchtime for the formidable roast being a good example (and the roast is a lot more praiseworthy than my fish and chips, from memory).
They’ve also got a reasonable sense of humour at The Mall, which is good to see. Or just a hugely inflated opinion of their outdoor space. You choose.
With drinks imbibed and food ingested, we got up to leave. Someone suggested we take a photo inside and before we knew what we’d done, we made a horribly upsetting clockwise exit through the interior of the pub.
I’ll never go back again.
The Mall (66 The Mall, Bristol, BS8 4JG) is open 12:00 to 00:00 Monday to Friday and 10:00 to 00:00 Saturday to Sunday. www.themallpubbristol.co.uk
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